METALUBE

Marketing Lead

Content marketer

Kleen-Tex Industries, Inc.

Digital Marketing Specialist

Forty Fourth Parallel

Marketing Specialist

YaoHua Experimental School 

- Day to day delivery of quality content via PowerPoint presentation
- Creating activities to ensure student engagement. 
- Creation and delivery of end of semester exams. 
- Classroom Management.

English Language Teacher

Procurement for Housing

Management of several frameworks containing numerous suppliers: 

Electronic Payment Services 
Fleet Management and Vehicle Purchase
Facilities Management (Soft Services) 
Furniture and Flooring 

Management of Procurement processes. 

Lead Generation - Opening up discussions regarding client requirements and challenges to create new revenue streams. 

Account Management - Consistent communication with the objective of resolving challenges or gaining positive feedback via client testimonials. 

Business Development - Secured multiple large contract including vehicle fleets, electronic payments systems and furniture and flooring for numerous councils. 

Support with Marketing material - Leveraging supplier relationships for quality content to generate organic leads. 

Stakeholder Management - Managing client and supplier expectations through continuous 
professional relationships. From resolving service and delivery disputes, organising supplier days to price increases.

Active use of CRM systems - Sales Force and Dynamics 365 to log leads, organise sales process and gain data driven overviews.

Category Buyer

Junior Buyer

Metropolitan Police

•	Actively liaising with top level clients.
•	Contract Management – Oversaw a various number of tenders over three procurement categories (ICT, Property and Corporate Operational Procurement).
•	Contract negotiation – With severe financial constraints placed on the Metropolitan Police Service I was regularly negotiating improved prices particularly on contract extensions. 
•	Support on various contracts for police equipment.
•	Active input on reports such as market research. 
•	Use of business software (SAP and BlueLight) for competitive tenders.

Procurement Category Analyst 

Marks and Spencer

During the summer when working within the operations department I gained vital experience on what happens behind the scenes in a well-established retail firm as well as an insight on supply chain management.

My duties included:
•	Operation of Machinery 
•	Stock Management 
•	Supply Chain Management
•	Maintain logs of Inflowing and Outflowing stock/equipment – Paper/IT based 
•	Store Maintenance
•	Team Working

Operations

NorthwoodUK

Gave invaluable experience on franchising, client/company negotiations and client management

My duties included: 
•	Client House viewings 
•	Organising files/folders/Completing documentation 
•	Effectively solving clientele issues through telephone communication
•	Using Bespoke IT software

Real Estate Associate

Gained a first-hand insight into Food retailing, from customer interaction to food waste procedures.

My duties included:
•	Customer Relationship Management 
•	Sales 
•	Stock Management 
•	Operation of Information Technology 
•	Telephone Communication 
•	 Handling the payment for any purchases
•	Food date rotation
•	Carry out waste procedures effectively

Customer Assistant

Acquired valuable experience with regards to Clothing Retail. 

My duties Included: 
•	Customer Relationship Management
•	Stock Management
•	Operation of Information Technology 
•	Handling the payment of purchases 
•	Telephone Communication 
•	Sales

Digital Marketer | Sharing Learnings with 6/7/8 Figure Brands

Welcome to my profile. See something interesting? Please reach out for a chat. 

I’m British and I have worked in the UK🇬🇧 and Shenzhen, China's answer to Silicon Valley🇨🇳. 

Right now I'm working towards growing three brands in the B2B space; Metalube, MolySlip, and Vapor-tek, through both Digital and Traditional Marketing methods ensuring a healthy opportunity pipeline whilst maximising revenue. 

I love to keep both my mind and my body sharp. I am a fitness enthusiast and this in combination with my love for the challenge of learning Mandarin allows me to stay on the ball. 

What do I love about working for a growing, forward-thinking company? 

From my International Business degree to my time in China, I’ve always performed well in diverse teams. I motivate myself through personal development, and in fast moving-company, I find myself surrounded by inspiring people who share my love for self-improvement. I thrive in an environment where I am trusted with responsibility. It’s great to be a part of a forward-thinking business and I’m relishing the learning opportunities that come with it.  

I'll be dropping hints and tips with regard to what I have worked on and will be working on, feel free to share your insights. 

I'm always open to talk about your business, passion, or journey. Contact me via lewis.cardwell@kleen-tex.com

Lewis Cardwell

Building DTC brands to 8 and 9 figures | Founder of Soar With Us & For You Advertising | CMO of JAQ Group

The rules of DTC growth changed in 2025. In 2026, they're set to change again.

The playbook that got you to £10-30M - broad Meta campaigns, a handful of hero SKUs, one creative style across every touchpoint, is now actively working against you. 

Algorithms reward creative diversity. Attention spans demand psychological precision. 
And TikTok Shop has emerged as a genuine high-volume demand creation channel, not just another place to run ads.

The brands winning today are producing high volumes of distinctly different assets across every awareness stage (problem, solution, product), each built on messaging frameworks that actually drive people to buy. 

Not more creative. Better creative, deployed smarter.

I've spent 7 years in this problem space. My agencies have generated £600M+ in revenue across 250+ DTC brands. 

More importantly, we've built systems that compound, so you're not starting from scratch every creative cycle. Data from 70+ brands and over 4,000+ ads per month. 

A few recent wins we've delivered for our clients:
→ Ekster: 40% increase in profit, 75% YoY growth
→ Spacegoods: New customer orders up 86%, NCPA down 33%
→ AKT London: Tripled new customers and cut CPA by 59% in 6 months
→ Nutrition Geeks: 2,200% growth in 12 months

What makes us different: we build context databases that capture your brand DNA, winning angles, and performance learnings across every campaign. 

When the algorithm shifts or a creative fatigues, we're already three steps ahead, not scrambling to figure out what worked.

If you're a CMO or founder at an 8-figure brand feeling the scaling friction, happy to talk through what's working right now. Connect here or email olly@soarwithus.co

Olly Hudson

Kind Patches are running 3,000+ live ads right now. And not a single one is relying on a hero SKU or one-size-fits-all message.

We just broke down the funnel of one of the most deliberately segmented brands we’ve seen.

→ Every SKU positioned around a pain point
→ Every angle tailored to a specific outcome
→ Every ad mapped to a unique persona

This is persona-led growth, done properly.

Not “here’s our sleep patch” → but “here’s how you solve Sunday night scaries without melatonin.”

We’ve broken down the ads of 10 of their personas

- For those who want better skin and hair
- For those who want less stress
- For those who want better sleep
- For those who want more energy
- For those who want more focus
- For those who want support with weight goals
- For women who want hormone support
- For those who want better intimacy
- For those who travel often
- For men who want to take it to the next level

The breadth of products and persona variations feeds Meta’s Andromeda system with high-volume, diverse signals, improving delivery efficiency and incremental reach.

Want to see our breakdown?
Like this post
Comment “persona” and I’ll DM you.

undefined undefined

BFCM Guide

This is just one page from our 127-page ultimate guide to BFCM. 

If you’d like 126 more pages of ecom gold, join 500+ brands and check this out: https://bit.ly/3RlTHZ4


Plug 1

Newsletter Tease

Ps. Head here if you want to be the first to receive our 2024 ads blueprint this week: https://bit.ly/3YR6HaD


12/03

5 more critical errors to fix: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/olly-hudson_use-data-to-fix-your-brands-creatives-and-activity-7168154221719056384-Yn5A?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

13/03

Motion plug

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Get 10% off your first 3 months using our code: SWU10
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The Creative-Led Paid Acquisition Partner Behind £600M+ in DTC Revenue | Meta & TikTok for 8-9 Figure Brands.

In 2025, TikTok Shop grew 180% YoY, converted at up to 12%, and produced $2.7M LIVE days. In 2026, it’ll feel crowded. This is the playbook most DTC brands will wish they had before that shift.

TikTok Shop is converting at 8–12%, while most DTC sites are still stuck at 2–4%.

That gap is the opportunity and it won’t last forever.

If you’re doing £5M+ in e-commerce and TikTok Shop isn’t on your roadmap yet, you’re probably underestimating what’s happening.

TikTok Shop isn’t a “new channel” anymore. It’s a different operating system for commerce.

It rewards speed, structure, creative volume, and momentum.

The brands winning aren’t chasing one-off spikes, they’re building repeatable systems across affiliates, LIVE, offers, and content that compound daily.

This is a start-to-finish guide designed to help established brands launch TikTok Shop the right way, with the infrastructure, strategy, and execution required to scale without chaos.

Inside the guide, we break down:

- How to build a TikTok Shop foundation designed to scale (not collapse under demand)
- The technical setup and LIVE structures top brands use to keep viewers engaged and buying
- How to select hero products and offers that drive consistent GMV
- The affiliate ecosystem playbook: recruiting, incentivising, and sustaining creator output
- How to use LIVE coupons and flash deals without eroding brand value
- What high-performing TikTok Shop content has in common (hooks, structure, proof, CTAs)
- The host framework for training on-camera talent that can actually sell
- The metrics that matter during LIVE — and how to react when performance dips
- How to turn TikTok Shop into a creative engine for wider paid and organic growth

It’s a practical, plug-and-play blueprint for building a TikTok Shop system that drives consistent revenue and scales with control.

If you’re responsible for growth, creative, or e-commerce performance, this guide is your reference point.

Want it?
Like this post
Comment "tiktok 2026" and I'll send it over.
Make sure we're connected so I can DM you

We’ve scaled to 80+ people, 250+ brands, and £500M+ in tracked revenue.

And everyone in our leadership team is under 30.

Talent and energy got us here.

Structure is what’ll get us further.

We’ve made every classic mistake you’d expect from a young team building fast:

– Hired too late
– Invested in the wrong things
– Moved without the right operational muscle

At some point, you hit a ceiling. You can only build what you know.

We’ve always been good at doing - making ads, shipping strategy, driving performance.

But building a business that lasts is a different game.

That’s why this quarter we brought in Rachel McDonald (ex-Dentsu) to help sharpen our strategy, how we operate, scale and continue to lead the market into 2026.

She’s led global teams. She’s been in the rooms we’re aiming for.

Now she’s in ours.

Because if you want to build a long-term agency with real staying power, you need to balance hunger with experience.

Young teams are underrated.

But young teams with the right support? That’s where things get dangerous (in the best way).

I received this message from a client saying it’s the best experience they’ve had with an agency in 8+ years of eCom.

We’ve doubled the team this year. Launched new processes. Taken on some of the most ambitious brands we’ve ever worked with.

But through all of that, the thing I’m proudest of? The feeling our team creates for the people we work with.

The trust, reliability, and care that sits underneath it all.

And this note from a client, saying it’s the best experience they’ve had with an agency in 8+ years, says more than I ever could in a pitch.

Massive shoutout to Martyna, Kit and the wider team for the hard work and dedication you bring to our clients every day.

The kind of partnership that gets noticed (and recommended) without ever having to ask.

If I had to sum up how we’ve scaled Soar:

Build it properly. Treat people well. Let the work speak.

Turns out… it’s working.

Here’s to the next chapter.

Next month marks 7 years since we started Soar With Us from a spare bedroom at uni.

Today, we’re a 60+ team, managing 8–9 figure brands, and became Meta’s #1 DTC agency in the UK.

But here are 7 things we did to build in 7 years.

(I probably shouldn’t be posting this. Most agencies would gate-keep it)

1️⃣ Invest in marketing
You don’t have a sales problem, you have a marketing problem.
80% of our pipeline is inbound.
We built a weekly content engine designed to give away the strategy and sell the implementation.

What that looked like in practice:
- 1x podcast/week (D2C Diaries) – brands came in pre-sold, they’d already listened to 10+ hours of us.
- 1x lead magnet/week – frameworks, audits, templates
- Newsletter – built on HubSpot, personalised follow-ups based on downloads
- Founders post 5x/week – LinkedIn + X 
- Events & masterclasses – offline to online flywheel


2️⃣ Proprietary process + unique IP = scale leverage
- Agencies commoditise when they only sell hours. We scaled by building our core IP: Growth Compass, 360 Feedback System, creative frameworks.
- Our audit decks don’t just point out problems, they score, rank, and prioritise fixes using our frameworks
- Every new client runs through our Growth Compass scoring to benchmark performance gaps and build roadmaps


3️⃣ Founder-led organic content
We closed a £35M brand in 30 minutes as they’d already listened to 50 hours of us.
We turned our founders into a content-led growth engine and it changed everything.


4️⃣ Creative + paid = one system
- Merged creative + growth into one unified team by acquiring Hambi Media in 2024.
- Used frameworks to break down customer journeys and optimise every stage.
- Focused creative testing on incrementality, not just ROAS.


5️⃣ Internal culture = growth leverage
You don’t scale by adding clients. You scale by retaining great people and giving them progression and clarity.
I’d rather lose a client than a top team member.
- Every employee has career framework + KPIs tied to business impact.
- Internal culture pillar reviews, “kind candour” feedback loops.


6️⃣ Operational Excellence → margin + moat
We waited too long to bring in experience. A good ops head is a 6-figure unlock.
👉 Build ops early. Don’t wait until you’re 50 heads in.


7️⃣ Aggressive brand positioning + acquisition strategy
We positioned ourselves as the #1 performance creative agency early and backed it with proof.
- Aggressively pursued press, awards, and partnerships (Triple Whale agency of the year).
- Merged multiple agencies under one group to cover TikTok, Meta, and Creative.


It’s also worth saying, we’ve made every mistake you can make.

But we stayed obsessed with one thing: becoming the best growth partner in DTC.

If you’d like to work with us in 2026 as your Creative-Led Paid Acquisition Partner, get in touch here: https://lnkd.in/ew-b7dhN

Soar With Us

Hambi Media

Creative strategy is the most misunderstood (and most impactful) role in a DTC growth team. 

But most brands are hiring them for the first time with no idea of what “great” even looks like.

And the few A-players in the market? Already locked in or demanding salaries that don’t make sense for most teams.

If we could solve one constraint that would unlock growth in our agency, it’s the supply of creative strategists.

So instead of trying to hire them, we built them.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve refined an internal system to turn high-curiosity, high-potential operators into world-class creative strategists.

Now, we’re opening it up - The Creative Strategist Incubator

The 9-month pathway we’ve built from zero to strategist (and why Meta is backing us).

This is the MBA for Creative Strategy.

We’ve broken down the details of what this is in our newest episode and how you can apply.

Episode dropping at 5 pm. 🚀

If you're stuck on how to diversify creative… start here.

We built a creative hierarchy to maximise Entity ID diversity and in doing so, we unlocked:
- Scalable reach
- Lower CPMs
- Net-new audiences

All without increasing budget.

Think of the testing hierarchy as a pyramid.

At the base are the big creative swings, at the top, the small refinements.

When you’re launching:
→ Launch brand new concepts from scratch.
→ Test messaging within those fresh ads, don’t just swap copy into old visuals.
The goal: identify the message, persona, format combo that resonates most.
It keeps learnings clean and avoids grouping penalties.
(Even if variations get grouped under the same Entity ID, a winner will emerge).

When you’re optimising:
Got a winner? Remix it.
→ Change the format or the vehicle
→ Update the hook so it looks instantly different
→ Translate the story to a new style (e.g. founder VSL → third-person VO)

Here’s the hierarchy we use inside every high-growth account:

1. Format
Static / UGC / High-Production
→ Use when you're plateauing or need fresh signals.

2. Vehicle
Founder story / Green-screen / Testimonial / Listicle / Product demo
→ Use to scale a proven message across new personas.

3. Persona
Gen Z female → 40+ mum / Creator → Founder
→ Use to expand TAM or unlock overlooked pockets.

4. Hook
Zoomed-in face / Problem-statement / Unboxing / B-roll
→ Use to ensure Meta sees your ad as net-new.

5. Messaging
Script tweaks / CTA variants
→ Use once a concept is already converting.

If your creative system isn’t built around this hierarchy, you won’t scale in 2026.

85 people in the room. Talented people. And a voice in my head asking what I'm doing up here.

I thought imposter syndrome would disappear with progress.

More clients. Bigger wins. A growing team. Surely at some point you just... feel like you belong?

But it didn't disappear. It just changed shape.

Now it shows up in different moments. When I'm presenting a new strategy to the team. When someone asks a question I don't have the answer to. When I look around the room and realise how genuinely good the people around me are.

You think you'll feel "ready" at a certain level. But you don't. You just get better at showing up anyway.

Here's what I've come to understand: imposter syndrome doesn't leave. And maybe it shouldn't.

Because the moment you stop feeling it is probably the moment you've stopped growing.

If I'm expecting everyone else to improve with the business, it's non-negotiable that I'm on the same growth trajectory. Not standing still. Not coasting on what got us here.

The voice in my head that asks "what am I doing up here?" isn't the enemy. It's a reminder to stay accountable. To keep the standard high. To not let comfort replace curiosity.

The shift for me came when I stopped trying to get rid of it. Instead, I started using it as fuel.

Being clear, not perfect. Owning what I don't know. Backing the people who do know. Learning faster than the business is scaling.

Because leadership isn't about having every answer. It's about creating belief and showing up when it counts.

Some days the voice is louder than others. But I show up anyway. Not because I've figured it all out. Because the team deserves a leader who's growing as fast as they are.

P.S. Do you still feel it? Or have you found a way to make peace with the voice that questions if you belong?

We’re entering a new era of ecom.

Google, Shopify, Walmart, Etsy, Wayfair, and over 20 others have just dropped UCP: a universal standard that lets any AI agent buy from any retailer in real-time.

It’s now live in Gemini + Google's AI Mode.

Here’s why it matters for DTC 👇

The “Universal Commerce Protocol” (UCP) revolutionises the shopping experience.

Think of it as an open-source checkout layer for the AI era, one that any brand can integrate with, and any AI agent can transact through.

Why it matters:
→ It removes friction from discovery to checkout
→ You stay the merchant of record
→ Customers can buy directly inside AI interfaces (Gemini, Search, ChatGPT, Copilot)
→ Built-in support for Shop Pay, Google Pay, more coming
→ It’s composable: plug in your product catalogue, offers, checkout flow + discounts
→ It’s open-source and backed by Google

The goal? To create one shared language for agentic commerce so agents, brands and wallets can speak to each other instantly.

Just like HTTP did for websites.

Most DTC brands won’t clock this yet. But AI discovery is going to be a commerce channel, not just a research tool.

This changes how products are surfaced, selected, and sold.

It’s the end of the linear funnel. And the start of contextual, agent-led buying.

If you’re a scaling DTC brand:
→ Get your products into the Merchant Centre
→ Integrate the UCP spec (works with any backend)
→ Enable agentic checkout across Google + others

AI agents aren’t a threat. They’re the next growth opportunity.

IM8 Health went from $0 to a $120M run rate in 11 months. Now they're targeting $300M by the end of 2026.

We’ve been pointing to IM8 as best in class for months.

One of the cleanest funnel builds I’ve seen: long-form site, deep education, premium price justified at every stage. 

All engineered by Danny Yeung.

Built with:
- David Beckham as co-founder
- A product that replaces 16 supplements with one drink
- A scientific board from NASA, UFC & Mayo Clinic
- NSF certification + clinical trials from day one

Catch the full episode here, it’s stacked with insights: https://lnkd.in/e85t_ASx

IM8 Health

Investor I CEO I Entrepreneur I Advisor I Astronaut

We break down the creative strategy and funnel plays that drove $40M in Meta spend and 6,000+ ads during BFCM 2025.

If you’re serious about scaling in 2026, this is the episode to start your year with.

Here’s what we cover 👇

Q5 strategy: The most important “quarter” that isn’t a quarter.

Most brands waste this window with hype-led messaging or default evergreen creative.

The sharpest brands? They layer seasonal context into a funnel-led framework and it scales:
✅ 50% to TOF problem-aware “reset” creative
✅ 20–30% to MOF trust-builders + objection handling
✅ Hook variation built to extend shelf-life past Q5
✅ BOF = urgency + relevance, not just discounts
This is how you capitalise on low CPMs, high intent, and minimal competition from the big enterprise players.

Black Friday learnings
We spent $40M on Meta in November (+185% YoY) and shipped 6,000+ ads.

Our top takeaways:
- Start earlier than you think
- Don’t change your offer mid-flight
- Demand gen > discount panic
- Simple > clever (especially for older demos)

Creative strategy in 2026
You’ll either win with:
- Ultra-authentic, native content
- Highly stylised, scripted storytelling
Middle of the road = forgettable.

We also break down:
- Our approach to creative iteration vs net-new
- How to stretch performance from your best hooks
- The key human desires your content needs to hit
- Why volume still matters… but where it comes from matters more

Biggest risks for brands right now
- Poor offer architecture
- Weak mid-funnel
- Not adapting messaging to intent
- Lack of urgency across the team
- Process changes without buy-in

What’s coming in 2026
- M&A activity will ramp up
- Meta spend will keep growing, but TikTok Shop, YouTube, and AppLovin will become serious plays
- Brands will need a deeper bench of channel-ready creative
- “Creative similarity” will punish lazy iterations
- Great products with true retention will win. Everything else gets exposed.

This episode will give you the blueprint to hit the ground running in January and compound into your biggest year yet.

Catch up now: https://lnkd.in/eCja7Gu7

Personas are the real unit of scale on Meta now.

Meta doesn’t need you to define audiences anymore, creative does that work now.

In this episode, we break down what’s actually driving scale on Meta in 2026: persona-led creative, smarter systems, and AI used as a multiplier, not a shortcut. 

We cover why accounts hit incremental reach ceilings, why one persona always steals spend, and how the best brands are structuring creative and campaigns to scale without burning budget.

If performance looks fine but growth has stalled, this episode will help you reframe the problem

🎧 Full episode out now: https://lnkd.in/encyKp78

You'll lose over $90K this year to avoidable fundraising admin, here's how to stop it.

Most founders are still tracking investors in spreadsheets and scrambling to build data rooms the night before calls.

If you're a 100-person company, you're bleeding up to 1,848 hours per year ($92,400 annually) on admin overhead that could be automated.

I switched to an AI-powered fundraising workspace that changed everything: pitch deck, investor CRM, outreach sequences, and data room, all in one place using Notion.

The results:
→ Admin time dropped 80%
→ Pitch iterations 3× faster
→ My calendar freed up for actual investor conversations

The AI Founder's Kit I'm using includes everything you need to go from idea to funded:

- $300 Supabase credit for backend
- $60 in Vercel credits to ship your frontend
- 1 Year Framer launch
- Up to 6 months of Notion Business with AI
- 2,000+ vetted early-stage VCs, incubators, accelerators
- 50 pitch decks from YC, a16z, Sequoia-backed startups
- Tactical fundraising guides from operators

This isn't about working faster, it's about pitching sharper and closing smarter.

👉 Comment NOTION and I'll send you the free toolkit

Here’s 5 scaling challenges we see in every £30K–£1M/month agency:

- Margin collapse
- Sales team friction
- Delivery bottlenecks
- Founder burnout
- No true peer group

I’m co-hosting an in-person mastermind this March with Jordan Platten that solves all of these in 3 days.

Agency Accession is for agency owners making £30K–£1M+ per month who want to scale profitably without breaking the business in the process.

It’s 3 days of honest conversations, deep dives, and decision-making, with operators who’ve actually scaled past £100K/mo and had to rebuild the systems they broke along the way.

The focus is simple:
→ Profit
→ Client results
→ Happiness

Think founder dinners + fire strategy + clarity you don’t get from group chats.

When: 23–25 March
Where: London, UK (outskirts)
Who: Agency owners doing £30K–£1M+ p/m
Format: Evening kick-off, seminar-style talks, and implementation workshops

Common challenges we’ll break down:
- Hiring sales teams without losing margin
- Systemising delivery without bottlenecking
- Creating predictable acquisition
- Delegating ops while scaling volume
- Embedding AI (the right way)
- Finding a real peer group that’s on your level

This is built for founders who want to scale with leverage, not stress.

Operators who want to simplify, not stack more onto their plate.

If you want to be in the room (or have questions) head here for more details: https://lnkd.in/exKbmhnB

Helping Agencies Around The World Scale

Most DTC brands are hiring creative strategists with no benchmark for what “great” actually looks like.

It’s usually the first time they’ve ever made the hire.

And without reps, they end up either overpaying… or onboarding someone who takes 6 months to add value.

We hire this role over and over, which gives us reference points, systems, and a real understanding of what works.

That’s why we stopped relying on the market to provide talent.

We built a system to create it internally and to cut the time to value down from months to weeks.

If you can’t afford a £90K+ A-player with 5 years of reps, your only option is to build them, fast.

That's why we've created the UK's first creative strategy MBA, more details on this here: https://lnkd.in/e-rJdsBi

You can apply here: https://lnkd.in/eXXfmmMs

Meta changed how it decides which brands deserve scale, and engagement is no longer the deciding factor.

For DTC brands, GEM + UTIS explain why ads that get views no longer scale, and what kind of creative now does.

That changes the practical playbook for DTC brands in two big ways:

1. You’re no longer “feeding the algo” with ad volume. You’re feeding it with signal shape.

2. Organic is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s now part of the ranking surface area for paid.

Here’s what Meta is doing consistently across ads, organic, and Reels:

They’re moving from “What keeps people watching?” to “What genuinely matches what this person cares about?”

That’s the throughline.

Meta has publicly admitted something important: old engagement-based systems were flawed.

Interest-matching precision sat at 48.3% - near random.

So they built UTIS: the User True Interest Survey.

How UTIS works:
- Users are asked directly: “How well does this video match your interests?”
- Thousands of responses are collected daily
- A perception layer is trained on top of existing ranking models

The results:
- Precision improved from 48.3% → 63.2%
- Niche, high-quality content surfaced more often
- Generic viral content was actively demoted
- +5.2% total engagement
- +5.4% high-interest ratings
- –6.84% low-interest ratings

The key insight: interest isn’t just topic. It includes audio, mood, style, motivation, and production quality.

This philosophy directly mirrors what GEM is doing for ads.

GEM is not “a better targeting engine.” It’s a storyline interpreter.

It looks at:
- Sequence behaviour (months → weeks → days)
- Cross-platform actions (IG, FB, Reels, WhatsApp)
- Web behaviour
- Organic and paid interactions
- Creative attributes (format, style, persona, context)

Then it asks: “Does this brand’s creative consistently align with what this person actually cares about?”

That’s why Meta keeps repeating: “Rank both organic content and ads.”

Organic is no longer distribution. Organic is training data.

Meta doesn’t just want more ads.

It wants:
- More distinct interpretations of who your product is for
- More signals of relevance depth
- More evidence of niche alignment

This is why creative is the targeting. And why generic viral content is now actively punished.

UTIS demotes:
- Trend-jacking
- Broad, relatable humour
- “Everyone will like this” hooks
- Empty watch-time bait

GEM rewards:
- Narrow language
- Specific use cases
- Clear persona intent
- Context-rich demonstrations
- Consistent organic + paid storytelling

So when DTC teams ask: “Why are our Reels getting views but ads aren’t converting?”

The answer increasingly is: you trained Meta to think your brand is for everyone, so it’s for no one.

I've published an article breaking this down in more detail: https://lnkd.in/ezy75VeE

Most brands are already planning 2026. Very few are planning Q5 properly.

In the latest episode of D2C Diaries, Loukas Hambi & I break down why the period between Christmas and the first full week of January is the most misunderstood (and most valuable) window in e-commerce, and why how you use it will shape your entire year.

We cover:
 – What we saw spending nearly $40M on Meta in November 
 – Why simple offers still outperform complexity at scale
 – The demand and mindset shift that happens almost immediately after Christmas
 – The short “flash in the pan” motivation window brands either capitalise on… or miss
 – And the biggest changes we expect in e-commerce in 2026
- Plus our 2025 awards & predictions for 2026 👀

If you execute Q5 properly, you don’t just win January - you set momentum for the rest of the year.

Full episode live now 🎧 https://lnkd.in/epNwpMV8

Genuinely one of the things I’m most proud of at Soar: our AI research process.

Very few agencies go this deep but time and time again, it’s the part clients are most impressed by.

We dig into friction points, buyer psychology, emotional nuance, and unseen drop-offs across the entire journey.

Because before we scale anything, we want to know what’s blocking scale.

What’s inside our AI research doc (and why clients rate it):

– Conversion blockers that don’t show up in GA
– Emotional insights to shape messaging, UX, and offers
– New persona unlocks based on real behavioural signals
– Practical fixes that get implemented immediately

✅ One client used it to fix hidden site issues and even rolled out a new feature to catch customers entering the wrong discount codes at checkout.

It’s not just research. It’s one of the clearest reasons high-growth brands choose to work with us.

If ChatGPT recommends your competitor, did you just lose a sale, or never know it happened?

Right now, AI is influencing purchases you can’t see, can’t track, and can’t attribute. 

Ask yourself this: Would you accept a marketing channel you couldn’t measure?

Most ecommerce teams still operate with a mental model of discovery that looks something like this:

Google → ads → PDP → purchase.

The problem is that this model no longer reflects how customers are actually making decisions.

Today, people are asking AI questions like:

“Best protein for sleep?”
“Best magnesium for anxiety?”
“Best alternative to [your brand]?”

And the first answer they trust isn’t coming from Google anymore. It’s coming from ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity.

Which creates a new reality: you can be ranking #1 on Google, doing everything “right” by traditional standards, and still be effectively invisible in AI-generated recommendations. 

That’s no longer a theoretical risk, it’s already happening.

Here’s where most brands get stuck.

They simply have no real understanding of how they show up in AI.

– Are they mentioned at all?
– Are they being recommended for the right use cases?
– Is AI accurately reflecting their positioning, or subtly mischaracterising it?
– And most importantly, is any of this actually influencing revenue?

Until very recently, AI visibility was a complete blind spot for ecommerce teams.

That’s why I’ve been paying close attention to Triple Whale free tool that they've  just launched.

AI Visibility gives ecommerce operators a way to see how their brand actually appears inside AI-generated answers and to connect that visibility to commercial outcomes.

You can see:

– How your brand shows up across AI tools
– Which prompts you’re winning, and where you’re missing
– Which competitors AI consistently favours
– The sentiment and sources shaping those recommendations
– And how AI mentions translate into real sales, not vanity metrics

All of this lives inside the same Triple Whale platform teams already use to measure performance.

No extra dashboards. No surface-level “AI mentions” with no commercial context.

Just visibility that’s grounded in revenue.

The real shift here isn’t asking, “How do we rank?” It’s asking, “How does AI understand us and why?”

And if AI continues to become the default discovery layer, which directionally it clearly is, then choosing not to measure this may be the riskiest decision an ecommerce team can make.

It's a free tool and worth exploring if you’re building for ecommerce in 2026.

Tagging Triple Whale and putting the link here for anyone who wants to explore this: https://lnkd.in/etx2Rk5s

Curious how others here are thinking about AI-led discovery. As SEO 2.0, or as something fundamentally different?

🚨 We’re still hiring for our Creative Strategy Incubator.

Over the last few years, we’ve built and trained what we believe is one of the strongest Creative Strategy teams in the UK.

Along the way, we kept seeing the same pattern across e-commerce brands:

Everyone wants great creative strategists.
Very few people actually know what skills make one.

So internally, we didn’t just hire for them. We trained them.

The Incubator is a training ground for the next generation of elite Creative Strategists in e-commerce.

What really compounds isn’t just individual talent, it’s the network effect: strategists learning together, pressure-testing ideas, sharing context, and raising the bar collectively.

That’s what this Incubator formalises.

Think of it as an MBA for Creative Strategy.

Real accounts.
Real performance pressure.
Real feedback.
Real ownership.

Years of experience compressed into months, inside one of the strongest creative strategy ecosystems in the UK.

If you’re early in your career, deeply curious, commercially sharp, and obsessed with how creativity actually drives performance, this is your launchpad.

You can apply for the incubator here: https://lnkd.in/eXXfmmMs

You can find more information on the opportunity here: https://lnkd.in/e-rJdsBi

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taplio

The Battle

Lewis Cardwell

Olly Hudson

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Olly Hudson's LinkedIn Performance

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